 | Mansoul or The Riddle of the World |  |
Within a while, contínued thus our course;
Our torch shows new inéxtricable paths:
Dire Yammer sounded ín our ears, before
Our halting steps: mistrust was in our hearts!
We would and had we might, have swerved from thence.
The image presently, ah! mirrored in our glass:
(We hastily had taken our Merlins mirror forth;)
Showed fearful gleam of Sinners' Wailing-place.
Where spirits rest not, áfter their fleshes' deaths;
But wallow and wind, in torment of their minds;
Shut out from bliss.
Our torch shows new inéxtricable paths:
Dire Yammer sounded ín our ears, before
Our halting steps: mistrust was in our hearts!
We would and had we might, have swerved from thence.
The image presently, ah! mirrored in our glass:
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Showed fearful gleam of Sinners' Wailing-place.
Where spirits rest not, áfter their fleshes' deaths;
But wallow and wind, in torment of their minds;
Shut out from bliss.
Self-love, their only God,
Hath them undone. Though severs them from us.
Impenetrable íron huge mountain-mass;
Appeared there souls of wights, in Merlin's glass;
Horrific spectacle! midst fire-flashing smoke;
In endless pine. A thousand flamíng mouths,
Doom-pits; as little and little we might perceive
Glowed in fire-hills of Hels unending Plain:
Where, nigher viewed, us seemed, in every Abyss;
Writhed demon-gotten monsters óf mankind.
Midst torments, they continually there upclimb:
To fall to greater bale, back from the brinks.
Hath them undone. Though severs them from us.
Impenetrable íron huge mountain-mass;
Appeared there souls of wights, in Merlin's glass;
Horrific spectacle! midst fire-flashing smoke;
In endless pine. A thousand flamíng mouths,
Doom-pits; as little and little we might perceive
Glowed in fire-hills of Hels unending Plain:
Where, nigher viewed, us seemed, in every Abyss;
Writhed demon-gotten monsters óf mankind.
Midst torments, they continually there upclimb:
To fall to greater bale, back from the brinks.
Other impélled by fiery-eddying Tempest;
Great multitúde, bé borne ón-forth to their Doom;
Evil-dóers. Mongst whom, now blackened is his face;
One who lived lately crowned. We marvelled seeing,
Souls, in one condemnation with him, on him,
(Become now all mens curse,) to turn their backs!
Whom vehemently théy, with loathing mouths, reproach
Their evil ending late, by tímeless death:
In wicked warfare he, crowned sot, provoked.
Now a griesly leprosy blots his werewolfs face!
Great multitúde, bé borne ón-forth to their Doom;
Evil-dóers. Mongst whom, now blackened is his face;
One who lived lately crowned. We marvelled seeing,
Souls, in one condemnation with him, on him,
(Become now all mens curse,) to turn their backs!
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Their evil ending late, by tímeless death:
In wicked warfare he, crowned sot, provoked.
Now a griesly leprosy blots his werewolfs face!
From sulphur-reeking powder of Hel-Plain;
Uprise to meet them, fiends more fearful-shaped,
Than may be told. That War-monger, they, haled forth;
With glowing links, attach, of ádamant chains
Insoluble: and weld to adamant stake;
(One of mány, ímmoveable, which therein seen fixt.)
To be all Hels derision, from henceforth.
And that before Hel-forged steel looking-glass;
Wherein he evermore contemplates himself;
His coxcomb vísage and enormous deeds.
And ever sleepless, dire accusing Voice
Rings ceaseless in his ears, in a dead World:
Requiring of his impious soul, the Breath
Of Europes human Spring. He esteeming less
Than his fond self, Earths Nations; (heathen,) sought
His violent bloody rapine of the World.
Uprise to meet them, fiends more fearful-shaped,
Than may be told. That War-monger, they, haled forth;
With glowing links, attach, of ádamant chains
Insoluble: and weld to adamant stake;
(One of mány, ímmoveable, which therein seen fixt.)
To be all Hels derision, from henceforth.
And that before Hel-forged steel looking-glass;
Wherein he evermore contemplates himself;
His coxcomb vísage and enormous deeds.
And ever sleepless, dire accusing Voice
Rings ceaseless in his ears, in a dead World:
Requiring of his impious soul, the Breath
Of Europes human Spring. He esteeming less
Than his fond self, Earths Nations; (heathen,) sought
His violent bloody rapine of the World.
Whilst yet, with bereaved thought, in Merlin's glass,
We gazed: an earthquake smote Hel-Pit. Seemed gape
And shut-to each fearful blind pathway before us:
Stagger Hel-Frame and founder underfoot;
And shatter o'er our heads. We wist not whither,
Flee forth, to save us. In that sore constraint,
Beat thick our hearts, our knees failed under us.
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And shut-to each fearful blind pathway before us:
Stagger Hel-Frame and founder underfoot;
And shatter o'er our heads. We wist not whither,
Flee forth, to save us. In that sore constraint,
Beat thick our hearts, our knees failed under us.
But Herthas divine Spirit hath succoured us.
That leading swiftly on, eách one by the hand;
Mongst crumbling craigs, saved from that peril forth.
That leading swiftly on, eách one by the hand;
Mongst crumbling craigs, saved from that peril forth.
And we ascending, whence we were miswent:
Beneath that dívine Well-Spring of Grace passed:
Which flows from Heavens long-suffering Mercy-Seat.
Down even unto the Lost. Some of whose drops;
Fell likewise luminous sprinkling upon us;
Like to a quickening dew.
Beneath that dívine Well-Spring of Grace passed:
Which flows from Heavens long-suffering Mercy-Seat.
Down even unto the Lost. Some of whose drops;
Fell likewise luminous sprinkling upon us;
Like to a quickening dew.
| Mansoul or The Riddle of the World | |